General Motors (GM) continues to struggle to ramp production of the Hummer EV, still building just 12 units per day nearly a year and half after production first began. However the automaker will soon be making an important change to the production lines that unfortunately won’t increase the rate of production but will add a new and important feature – bidirectional charging.
Starting with the 2024 model year the Hummer EV will be outfitted with a new 19.2kW onboard charger, replacing the previous 11.5kW onboard charger which didn’t provide for bidirectional charging capability, according to lead development engineer for Hummer EV Aaron Pfau.
“You could not effectively take power from the battery in this vehicle and put it into another vehicle. So in ’24, we are enabling that. The 19.2-kilowatt charger, Level 2 AC charger, that we have on board, that is really the key change that enables this,” said Aaron Pfau, lead development engineer for Hummer EV. (via Automotive News)
The Hummer EV comes equipped with a massive 212kWh battery pack. That is the biggest battery on the market today, so big it could provide a full 100% charge to two Model 3 Long Range cars and still have about 25% left in its “tank.”
It will take a while to do that however as the Hummer EV will only be able to provide up to 6kW of electricity while charging other EVs.
In addition to being able to charge other electric vehicles (EVs), Hummer EV owners will also be able to their battery as a generator and power appliances and other items through a new accessory that provides 3kW of electricity to things like TVs, laptops, camp fridges, heaters and more.
The new onboard charger will appear on both the truck (3X and 2X variants) and SUV (1, 2X, 3X variants) versions of the Hummer EV, the latter of which only recently started production in January.
